DarleneCrossover: 6Betrayal
by Hardwing
Summary: See our gargs trying to handle to be betrayed by people they're close to... and how they try to come over the wounds life brings.
1. Beginning

**6.Betrayal**

"The black mass in the middle" the clan's healer began "what is it"

"It looks like cancer." Moore replied.

"We have to operate at once..." Moore explained "or you might lose the leg."

Where Hudson's right upper leg should be, the blanket covered nothing... It just laid flat on the bed.

Not wanting to believe what her eyes showed her, Deborah pulled the blanket from this part. She would never forget what she saw in this second...

Her mate's leg was missing, but the first third of his right upper leg.

When she reached the stairs, Darlene discovered her daughter lying at the end of the stairs on the floor, crouched to a ball with Shade by her, trying without success to comfort her. While racing down, Darlene noticed that Lana was alive, but trembling all over her whole body as if she had fever... obviously in shock.

"Something in the box terrified her." Darlene explained to her mother.

"What is it" Darlene asked, even when a part of her didn't want to know.

"The head of a human baby." Demona noticed in the same tone, as if she would say the weather was good while she closed the box.

Interludes:3.Duties

**12.08.98; 07:47; Castle Wyvern, Highest tower:**

Goliath stood on the highest tower, his arms crossed on his chest and looking down on the castle where his clan slowly gathered to go to their resting places. He smelt the scent of the city, a poisoned scent as some of the elders once noticed, but he had grown used to it, finding it as natural as he had once found the salty scent of the ocean back in Wyvern.

It helped a bit to draw away the thoughts on his mentor.

"Goliath" he heard a soft and wonderful voice calling his name.

Looking around, he discovered Elisa coming up the stairs, looking at him with a smile, which made all his worries lift from his shoulders for a moment.

"My Elisa." Goliath greeted.

He made a step to her, yet she was faster, throwing herself on him and embracing him strongly.

Goliath laid his wings around her, returning the embrace and softly stroking her hair.

"I'm sorry that I didn't arrive sooner." Elisa told him when they let go. "Chavez and I had a lot of work to do, to sell the district our story. Has Asrial told you"

Goliath nodded.

"Lucifia's evil is endless" he simply stated.

Elisa nodded, yet there was something more, her mate's voice seemed distracted and the pain in his face ran deeper.

Elisa placed a hand on his face.

"What is it, Big Guy" she asked him, looking straight into his eyes.

"Dr. Moore had to amputate practically everything of Hudson's right leg." Goliath told her.

Elisa gasped, placing a hand before her mouth.

"How did it happen" she asked unbelieving.

"We think it was Lucifia's blood from the last battle, which caused a sort of cancer in his leg." Goliath explained. "We even thought of asking Demona to help us, but she told us already that Lucifia, like her blood, is immune to her magic... or shamanism, as she calls it." Goliath looked away from his love. "It happened too fast."

Elisa, knowing her mate, pulled his face so that he looked in hers again.

"It wasn't your fault" she told him. "Don't even think that for a moment."

"I'm the leader." he replied, balling his claws to fists. "I could've protected Hudson when I had the chance."

"Could Demona have done anything about it" Elisa replied, stubbornly not letting her mate wear this load. "Or Hudson, or anyone else"

"He will suffer through this for the rest of his life." Goliath noticed. "When he awakens tomorrow..."

"Then we will help him..." Elisa assured. "You, I, the whole clan... not to mention his mate."

Goliath thought about it, noticing the first sunbeams nearing behind his back, then he gave a smile on his love, even though it was a soft one.

"Thank you, my..." the last words were lost when the sun changed the leader of the Manhattan clan into stone.

Elisa gave the statue a soft smile, touching his still warm face with her right arm.

"Always, Big Guy." she told him.


	2. Waking up

**12.08.98; 20:13; Destine Mansion, Lana's room:**

Roars greeting the night were the first sound filling Darlene's ears when her stone skin fell off from her. The first look, as the last one of the previous evening, was aimed on her daughter, who now freed herself from the remnants of her stone skin.

"Lana?" she called her daughter in a mixture of greeting and worry.

"I'm fine." Lana told her, pulling her legs close to her body.

Darlene tried to touch her daughter's hair, but Lana turned away, evading her mother's touch.

"Lana, you can... " Darlene began, moving closer to her oldest child.

"**NO!**" Lana screamed back on her, jumping up from the bed and walking away. "I'm fine..."

Darlene looked on her daughter, who now so much avoided her touch.

"...And, I'm hungry." Lana ended her sentences, racing through the door.

"Lana!" Darlene called to her, seeing her daughter's tail slipping through the door.

She jumped up, or better yet she tried to, but a sudden pain in her stomach made her fall back.

What is wrong with me? She asked herself while stroking her stomach, and then it was there again. Was her stomach rebelling after the last night?

Darlene would have thought more about it, but in this moment she heard a voice coming from the door chirping happily.

Looking up, she discovered Gem running to her on all fours, seemingly happy to see her mother.

The pain forgotten for now, Darlene picked the hatchling up, holding her up in the air for a moment on which Gem moved her wings.

"And where did you come from?" she asked the hatchling, on which she simply gulped happily.

"I brought her in." Demona's voice came from where Gem had come.

Darlene looked up, seeing her mother standing in the doorway.

"Lana didn't want to talk?" Demona asked.

"Seemingly," Darlene replied, standing up while holding Gem near her breast. "But then, she never was one for talking much about her problems."

Her mother nodded.

"How is your stomach?" she asked, abruptly changing the topic.

"It is... fine." Darlene explained, surprised that her mother had noticed. "It was just the stress of yesterday."

Demona nodded, turning around to go down the stairs.

"Mother?" Darlene called to her, on which the immortal turned around. "What was with Asrial, yesterday?"

Demona stopped at the beginning of the stairs, thinking about eluding the question.

"We had an argument," she explained, moving further down the stairs.

"About what?" Darlene asked, groaning silently.

Demona stopped halfway down, turning her head halfway back to her daughter.

"Old things." she explained icily.

"Of what I saw, she won't come here again." Darlene told her angrily.

"Pity." her mother replied, walking further down.

Darlene stared after her mother angrily.


	3. Waking up2

**12.08.98; 20:14; Castle Wyvern, Medical Station:**

The awakening came even quicker, just when Deborah shook off the remnants of her stone skin, the memories of the former night returned.

She looked down on her mate, trying not to look at the place where the greatest part of his right leg should have been.

Hudson held his head, even though the stone-sleep had washed away the narcotic of the previous night, he still felt a bit soft in his head. Opening his eyes, he noticed his mate standing by his side and smiled.

"My Angel." he greeted her, trying to stand up, but a sudden pain made him fall back in pain.

"What is it?" Deborah asked, more than worried by the look on his face.

"My right leg," Hudson groaned, "it hurts down from the knee."

Deborah swallowed while her face turned gray.

"My love, this can't..." she bit her lip, continuing calmer. "Your leg can't hurt anymore."

Hudson stared at his Angel of the sea, at first unbelieving for a moment, then in growing shock.

Unbelievably, he straightened up, staring at the place where his right leg should be, just to see a stump... a pitiful stump.

"No..." he groaned, falling back on the bed.

"Moore said he had no choice." Deborah explained. "It would have killed you if he had waited."

"Then he should have let me die..." the elder gargoyle replied, closing his eyes where tears were threatening to emit.

"Don't say this." Deborah all but shouted, nearly angrily about these words while kneeling down to him. "Don't even think this, we will go through this together."­

Hudson didn't respond. The old warrior just stared ahead out of eyes red from tears, seeing his future.

Deborah knew what her mate was thinking, as she knew that nothing she would say could make this any better. So she leaned over him, embracing him strongly as she had so many times before.

After some seconds, Hudson returned the embrace silently.


	4. Worries

**12.08.98; 21:05; Castle Wyvern, floor before the medical station:**

Broadway came out of the infirmary, looking on his mate who leaned on the wall left of him.

"Well?" Angela asked him, full of worry.

"He looks fine." Broadway replied, walking beside her.

"Fine?" his mate asked back, more than a bit surprised.

"Under the conditions..." Broadway tried again, a bit calmer, stopping his movements.

"I wish I could speak with him." Angela told her mate, walking from the wall and up to him. "Maybe I could somehow divert him."

"Deborah is with him." Broadway replied. "And Goliath made clear that the clan should give him time."

Angela nodded, as she remembered the words of her father.

"It must be terrible for him to have lost a leg?" she noticed, embracing her mate.

"It is more than this, Angela." Broadway told her, embracing his mate in return. "It is about who he is."

Angela looked up to him, surprised.

"A gargoyle lives to protect." the cook explained. "This is what the elders taught us, this is what he taught us..."

"I know," Angela replied, "but what is it with the older ones? Look at the eldest for example."

"Even the eldest would fight if someone in the clan is in danger." Broadway noticed. "But with one leg..."

"He still can teach the other elders..." Angela explained convinced, "and the hatchlings. The clan needs him... I need him."

"I too." Broadway told his mate, softly stroking her hair. "And Goliath would never allow..."

Broadway stopped in half of the sentences, but when Angela slightly pushed away from him, he knew it was too late.

"Allow what?" Angela asked, staring into the eyes of her mate.

Broadway stopped, looking on the floor, feeling uneasy.

"Sometimes, when a member of the clan had lost his mate..." he began, "…or got a wound he couldn't live with… he decided to fly into the sun."

Angela stared on him.

"You mean they committed suicide?" she asked unbelieving. "And the clan allowed this?"

"It was a different time back then, Angela." Broadway tried to explain. "But Hudson has his mate... he wouldn't leave her now."

Both looked at each other, Angela still shocked.

"I have to look after the kitchens before the rest of the clan starves." Broadway said finally. "Would you like to help?"

Angela nodded, not knowing what else to do.


	5. Dealing with it

**12.08.98; 21:13; Castle Wyvern, Medical Station:**

Hudson starred at the meal that Broadway had brought him some minutes ago and even though he hadn't eaten his last meal, he couldn't overcome himself to eat something.

He sat upward on the left side of his bed, the table lifted up to him and his mate sitting in front, eating silently spoon by spoon of her soup.

Deborah did not look up to her mate, as she knew that he just stared on his breakfast, as she knew that asking him to at least taste it wouldn't help at all. Instead, she took a short look to Bronx who was lying beside the bed.

The beast had refused to go with some of her rookery siblings and the leader when they went off to get their meals and Deborah hadn't needed to search the medicine station to know that Bronx had spent the day there.

Nearly against her will, she made a short look up to her mate's face. It was dark, full of worries and yet it had a somehow distant expression.

Deborah didn't need to know what her mate was thinking, as it was what every gargoyle worth that name would think in this situation... what she would think.

"Are you ready?" Deborah asked him when she had eaten up.

Hudson nodded, turning himself around on the bed, to lye on in again.

Silently, Deborah put away the table and once again put her chair in front of his bed.

Just then, when she was once again attempting to begin a talk, Deborah heard the sound of a door opening and steps coming nearer.

Not again... she prayed silently, not so soon...

Most of his rookery siblings tried not to look on the remnants of his leg, as the pitiful look in their eyes had been hard for her mate, maybe even as hard as loosing his leg originally and now there were even more condolences.

Deborah stopped these thoughts when the steps came nearer and she could identify them, as coming from human feet, just a second before Xanatos and Dr. Moore came into sight.

"Good evening." Moore greeted the couple.

Deborah nodded and even Hudson overcame himself to a short nod.

"Your mate explained to you why I had to do it?" Moore asked Hudson, walking closer to him.

"Aye..." Hudson replied in a sad tone. "It wasn't your fault."

Moore nodded with a short look to Deborah, who felt a bit guilty while looking on Moore's shoulders.

"And what do you want here, Xanatos?" Deborah asked the human.

"Actually," the billionaire explained. "I just talked with the doctor about ways to help you."

"Can ye grow me a new leg?" Hudson asked him in a dry voice.

"My scientists aren't so far yet." Xanatos explained even so dry. "Yet there are other ways."

"Which ones." Hudson asked sitting up, this news sparking his interest.

"There are two ways." Xanatos explained. "One is indeed to breed a new leg... yet on the genetic way."

"Ye mean to ask for Sevarius's help." Deborah replied. For the short time that she had lived in this time, she knew that Sevarius was the geneticist, who could have been the Archmage in this time... maybe even worse.

"I wouldn't ask, but pay him..." Xanatos explained. "Out of all scientists who work in this field, he is the best, not to mention that he is the only one with experiences about the specialties of gargoyle's special genetic structure. Others would need months... maybe years."

Hudson shook his head.

"No." he told him.

"Then there is the mechanic way." Xanatos continued. "My scientists could make you an artificial limb."

"Like with the Pack." Hudson noticed.

Xanatos nodded, even when he knew that this wasn't the best example for this.

"The leg could be modified so than it would look like your natural one," he explained. "After some time, it might even feel like the original one."

Hudson thought about it for a moment, until an image appeared in his mind... Coldstone.

"Nay, this isn't anything for me." He stated, shaking his head. "But thank you, Xanatos."

"If you change your mind, just ask." the billionaire replied and turned around, leaving the room.

Moore stayed, studying the remnants of his patient's right leg.

"I already asked myself where ye have been." Hudson told him.

"I was told that you and your mate would need time by yourselves." Moore replied. "And because of your healing abilities, I didn't expect any complications. But I still need to take a look on it."

Hudson nodded and so Moore removed the bandaged stump, taking scissors out of his pocket and slowly cutting the dirty bandage off the wound.

Moore checked the stump. The wound had healed indeed. Where he had stitched the skin over, he now saw a scar showing where the skin had grown together.

"Can you feel this?" he asked Hudson while softly touching the skin at the end of the stump.

"Aye." Hudson replied.

"Good." Moore told the old gargoyle. "One more stone-sleep and your body should be stable enough."

"Stable enough for what?" Hudson asked, surprised that his medical treatment wasn't over by now.

"Stable enough for the rehabilitation." Moore stated.


	6. Worries2

**12.08.98; 21:25; Destine Mansion, before Lana's room:**

"LANA!" Darlene screamed, knocking heavily on the door "**LANA!!!**"

The only reaction coming from the other side of the door was that the music became even louder.

Darlene groaned, discovering that her mother's original idea to not give her children keys for their rooms had maybe not been such a bad idea after all.

She shortly played with the thought of simply climbing through her daughter's window from outside, but rejected the thought. Maybe it was truly better to let her daughter be alone for a time.

Not that this was much easier.

Finally, she decided to look at the other members of her family somewhere spread into the mansion.

Walking to the door of Jarred's room, Darlene silently peered through the gap of it. Unseen, she studied her son helping Gem to put up blocks to make into a tower, making the infant laugh happily.

Darlene smiled by this wonderful sight and her heart warmed when she saw how wonderful her son cared for his little sister. And even before, he had been quiet since she had explained to him the night before, what had happened to his big sister and why he had to be nice to her for the next nights.

He is really a darling, Darlene thought, remembering the term her mother once used to describe her. Guess it will be his favorite meal tonight.

Slowly, she departed from the door, walking down the stairs where she walked upstairs in search for the other two members of her family.

Darlene had always wondered why her mother had needed two working rooms, or three if you included that of the hidden level.

Guess mother is a workaholic, she thought, even when the amusement was more sarcastic than anything else.

Work, first her magic and now her business empire, seemed to fill a part in her mother's life nearly as large as her family, maybe more and Darlene didn't think this was a good thing.

Arriving at the level, she walked towards her mother's room, knocking at the door. When there came no response, Darlene carefully opened the door, staring in, just to discover her mother nowhere on the first look.

Surprised, Darlene entered, discovering the PC still on and... Her mother sitting on the roof of the window looking outside, Shade beside her.

"Mother?" Darlene called her, seemingly gaining her attention since the immortal looked around from her position.

"I got a phone call from Angela," she explained. "The old soldier has lost a great part of his right leg."

Darlene gasped.

Demona simply nodded, looking back out into the night.

"It was Lucifia's blood, which caused somewhat of cancer," she explained, her voice being as hard as her face. "Some time later and he would be dead."

Darlene hesitated a second, staring at her mother's back.

"Maybe we should pay him a visit?" she suggested.

Demona shook her head, taking Shade up.

"I have to go out with Shade," she explained and before more could be said, she jumped out into the night, leaving Darlene behind.

Darlene stared after her mother, as she vanished into the night.

Sighing, she closed the window, not wanting to let the cold come in and turned around, back to the stairs, deciding that maybe she could allow herself a bit of TV tonight.


	7. Dealing with it2

**12.08.98; 21:37; Destine Mansion, Lana's room:**

Lana lay on her bed, listening to the music with closed eyes. She knew her mother had knocked on the door to her room some minutes ago, but didn't care. Why should she?

Even now, she saw the image before her inner eye... The head in a pool of blood... the eyes open... with blue color.

_What was that sound ringing around your brain?_

_Today was just a blur, you gotta head like a ghost train_

_What was that sound ringing around your brain?_

_You're here on your own..._

Lana opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling, trying not to think and to concentrate on the song.

_You're the outcast - you're the underclass_

_But you don't care -..._

She did care... one year ago, she had had a life and now...

_I know you've got a problem that the devil sends_

_You think they're talking 'bout you but you don't know who_

_I'll be scraping your life..._

It knocked again.

Doesn't mom ever give up? Lana asked herself.

She wanted to ignore it again, but then she noticed that it didn't come from the door, but the window.

Surprised, Lana sat up, looking to the window, just to see nobody there.

_Your head's in a fish tank_

_Your body and your mind can't breath..._

Wondering, she rose from the bed, moving to the window, but seeing no one outside.

Guess mum is trying to lure me, Lana guessed, or Jarred wants the music.

Slowly, she opened the window to have a better look outside. When she had opened the window just an inch, a thought hit her like a bag of cement and she tried to close it again instantly…

_You're the un-invited guest who stays 'till the end_

_I know you've got a problem that the devil sends..._

… Too late!

Something very massive pushed the window inside again, when Lana was about to close the lock. The power made Lana fall backwards very painfully on her back.

Looking up, she saw a gargoyles kneeling on the roof of the window and looking down on her with a wide, taunting smile.

Lana knew it was Lucifia even when she had never seen her... Well, it wasn't that she knew that many gargoyle females with black eyes running around in New York.

Lana registered all details of the gargess at once... the black hair, the skin tone slightly darker than her grandmother's and much darker than her mothers or her own. The face... except the two little horns growing out of the head, it resembled definitely very much her grandmother's and Lana would have paid this more attention, if not for the darkness of Lucifia's eyes that had caught her.

A second past while she thought about this, a second until she remembered that maybe it was perhaps a good idea to scream, or to try to run away.

It proofed to be definitely too late for this, since Lucifia made a jump, landing on Lana, pressing her down with her left claw and laying the right on Lana's mouth.

"Hello, niece." she greeted with a slight smile. "Don't even think of calling for help... You won't need it."

Lana didn't move, in fact she just stared into her aunt's completely black eyes, as if she had been hypnotized, feeling the black leather of her skin.

Lucifia held her smile, releasing her claw from Lana's mouth and stroked her face softly along the line in a soft way, which made Lana shudder.

"Lana, I think we should talk," she told her.

Lana couldn't talk, she felt as if her muscles were out of control.

"I heard you had some trouble last year?" Lucifia told her and Lana could feel how the gargess's tail winded around her own. "Your father's death, yourself being changed into a gargoyle, moving to your grandmothers..." her smile enlarged. "Oh, and the little thing about last night... I'm sorry about that."

"Really?" Lana asked in low voice... not really believing this.

"Yes." Lucifia replied, without just the hint of humor. "But I can make things better."

Lana looked away, not wishing to see the black glimmer of her captor's eyes.

Lucifia ignored this and came closer. For a moment, Lana believed the gargess would lick her, something that would make her scream definitely, but Lucifia didn't, instead she took a deep breath, inhaling her niece's scent.

"You still smell human..." she noticed. "…At least partly, but I could give it back to you again."

This made Lana look up. For a moment, she wanted to ask her captor if this was true, but then she reminded herself that this could very well be true, considering the abilities her grandmother had reported Lucifia to have.

"And I should believe that you would simply do this?" Lana asked her captor, looking up into Lucifia's face, which had rose a little.

"It would have a price." Lucifia replied. "Something in return... a bowl laying on the chimney still of your grandmother's artifact room."

Lana stared at her. She knew that the one thing she had learned about her aunt was that she couldn't trust Lucifia… yet.

"What do you need it for?" Lana asked, as she stared into the black eyes and feeling her soul tremble by the darkness in it.

"This is none your business." Lucifia replied, soft, tempting and not angry as Lana had suspected. "None of this is."

She smiled again, taking her claw away from Lana's shoulder and stepping away from her, such allowing Lana to move away from her.

"You never wanted this life, this constant nightmare without a wake up." Lucifia noticed. "You never wanted to be a gargoyle, and you don't like it, as your brother does."

Lana rose carefully, being one meter away from her captor.

"And it won't end, or do you think your mother would allow you to turn back into a human, if she could?" Lucifia teased with a harder voice. "Or your grandmother?"

Lana stayed silent, biting her lip and taking a quick glance over her shoulder, finding that the door was still too far away.

Looking back, she saw Lucifia smiling again, as if she had read her mind... which truly wasn't hard to do.

"Your mother has her family, her clan." Lucifia explained. "Your brother has a life without school... but what do you have?"

With this, Lucifia turned around, walking to the window.

"Think about it, as this may be your only chance." she told her niece. "If you want it, meet me in the next two hours, with the bowl, in the alley behind the fabric of the Golden Cup in the Bronx... You won't miss it."

With this, Lucifia jumped back on the roof of the window, preparing to launch into the sky.

"Wait!" Lana stopped her.

"Yes?" Lucifia replied, turning half around and studying her niece with interest.

Her eyes were twice as interested, by what she said next...

"Why...?" Lana began, before she realized what she had said, and realized why it sounded so fishy. "Why don't you just take it?"

"Because I promised not to attack your home." Lucifia told her. "Stealing something would be pretty much like this, wouldn't it?"

With this question, she jumped outside, launching into the night.

Lana stared at the window, then she slowly walked closer to it, leaning it back to its closed position, but unable to close it completely since Lucifia's entry had destroyed the lock.

She stared out of the window.

Afterwards, Lana couldn't say how many minutes she had stood there... or what she had thought of… just that it had ended suddenly and that she had turned around, walking outside.

On the floor, she began asking herself where she actually was walking to and stayed there a second. Lana turned around, looking to her room, as if to make sure that she hadn't dreamed this.

But naturally she had not and along with this knowledge, she registered something other. There were the sound of her brother's laughter, along with Gem's giggle, coming out of Jarred's room and Lana believed to hear the sound of another voice... surely from the television, coming from downstairs.

So mum is watching TV, Lana thought, taking a step to the stairs, leading to the lower level.

She stopped.

What am I doing? Lana asked herself, staring at the stairs.

She knew what the greatest part in her wanted to do, most important in her brain, yet she had doubts about simply walking down to her mother, telling her everything and the doubts had a voice...

"_...Do you think your mother would allow you to turn you back into a human if she could?" _Lucifia's voice asked teasingly.

Lana knew these words came from an insane psycho, yet the offer...

She looked to the stairs, leading upwards.

Lana walked, following her eyes. At first, she walked slowly and then she began to run, using four arms and legs until she had reached the highest level of the mansion.

There it was, a room full of weapons, statues, vessels and some solemnly pictures that Lana believed to be Scottish.

But Lana wasn't interested in studying them. Instead she walked further, past some shelves and heading to the fireplace. A large wooden chair was placed before it and when Lana passed it, she discovered the bowl at once, having been placed in the middle of the chimney sill.

Lana stared on it, registering the fine carvings, having been carved in the ancient wood.

How old is it? She asked herself, why does Lucifia want it so much?

Lana took it up, feeling the weight, but without discovering something unusual.

If Lucifia wanted it, it had to be dangerous, hadn't it?

On the other hand, why should her grandmother place it here openly, when it was dangerous?

"Maybe it's a test?" Lana thought.

This sounded reasonable, maybe Lucifia just wanted to test her, if she would really be able to do it.

Or she wants to lure me into a trap to kill me. Lana thought. Maybe...?

She didn't know.

If it's true, mum will be angry if she finds out... Lana reminded herself. And grandma will kill me.

But she would die as a human.

Lana took the bowl, just hesitating a moment, when an idea crossed her mind.


	8. Betrayal

**12.08.98; 22:46; Bronx:**

Lana didn't know for how long she had glided, with the bowl in her right claw, just that she was becoming slowly terrified that she would never find what she was searching for, in time... or she might be shot by a hunter.

But finally, she discovered it, the seemingly new neon lights, consisting of an enormous golden cup with the letters, based on a building, seemingly an office.

Lana glided lower and finally landed on the roof, near the alley behind the building and stared down into the darkness. There was no one...

Maybe I'm too late, Lana thought, or she is waiting for me down there?

Deciding that it was worth it, Lana climbed down the fire ladder.

The alley was dark, and being down in it seemed to make it even darker now.

"Lucifia" Lana called her... beginning to question her own sanity.

A snarl from behind made Lana jump in shock and she discovered... a cat with a black and white coat, jumping like mad out of a garbage can and running away from her, as if she would be the devil.

Lana's heart beat, as if it was going to explode.

"You're late..." a cool voice, much too near her ear, told her.

Lana jumped around again, this time into the different direction.

Lucifia's black eyes stared at her.

Lana took some steps back, believing to feel her heart stop beating.

"But at least you're here." Lucifia continued, with a slight smile "So let's make the deal before my sister starts searching for you, shall we"

Lana needed a second before she realized that the gargess actually meant her mother.

"Yes." Lana replied, staring at the gargess.

Lucifia wore a leather dress, which made Lana somehow envious despite the fact that it was actually an armor. Lucifia then grabbed into the armor and pulled out what looked like a scroll.

"This scroll contains the spell to make you human again." Lucifia told her.

"I'm no sorcerer." Lana reminded her critically.

"I know." Lucifia explained"I described the spell very easily, you just have to follow the instructions and you will become what you always have been."

Lucifia extended her right claw with the scroll in it, holding it to her niece.

Lana looked first on the bowl in her claw, then on the scroll.

She longed for the scroll, longed just for the possibility of being normal again, of being able to live with other humans again.

When she took a look into Lucifia's eyes that were black, consuming and frightening. Despite the fact that they showed no emotion, they seemingly even so longed for the bowl, maybe more than her own eyes longed for the scroll.

Slowly, she extended the bowl to Lucifia...

It is worth it, she tried to calm herself, whatever she wants with the bowl, it is not my business.

Sure it wasn't. It was the business of the Manhattan clan, or her grandmother's... they practically lived for such things.

She extended the bowl to Lucifia.

Images crossed her mind, the pictures of her mother, of Jarred and Gem. Maybe she could convince them to turn back into humans by themselves and they could return home together.

Lana gave Lucifia the bowl.

Lucifia grinned and for one moment, Lana feared that the gargess would break her word, but instead she practically pressed the scroll into Lana's claw.

"I would call this a deal" she noted.

Lana looked suspiciously onto the scroll in her claw, it looked like it had been made of greaseproof paper, like some of her grandmother's scrolls that she had seen, but this was newer.

She opened it, seeing some Latin words that she believed she could speak and a description.

"You never said that I had to become an alchemist" she told Lucifia, having discovered a list of things she had to mix and drink before the spell.

The addressed one, who patiently waited with the bowl in her claw, grinned.

"I had to make it so, since the spell cannot overlap with the original one..." Lucifia explained. "And it lasts until it is broken and not just for 20 years. This is what you wanted, is it not? A live long existence as a human."

Lana nodded, staring at the scroll. This was it indeed.

But what if it wasn't?

She tried to ignore this voice in her head, yet she couldn't.

Being human meant she would be able to go out again, be with other humans, maybe even return to L.A. and meet her friends again...

And leaving her family...

They're okay without me, Lana tried to calm herself down, Mother wouldn't have to look after me and… There is no way I could do anything.

Lana's eyes turned back to the bowl, reminding her that she **had** done something.

"What will you do with the bowl" Lana asked, forcing her eyes back into the blackness of Lucifia's eyes, which had watched her this whole time, interested. "I mean, you can tell me now, can't you"

Lucifia smiled on this.

"Oh, don't worry." she told her. "It won't be your business."

With this, she turned around.

Lana stared first on the scroll, then on the bowl in Lucifia's claw.

"No." Lana told her.

Lucifia turned back to her niece and raised an eye-ridge.

"I've changed my mind." Lana told her.

She took a step closer to the gargess, extending her right claw with the scroll and offering her left claw so that Lucifia could give her the bowl.

With a quick beat of her left claw, Lucifia knocked the scroll out of Lana's claw.

Before Lana could react, Lucifia had grabbed her by the neck, holding her above the earth with her left arm, even though this brought her muscles to tremble.

"I didn't offer a right of returning the offer." Lucifia told Lana who tried without success to free herself of Lucifia's hold by scraping on her arm.

Lucifia studied her out of the darkness of her eyes and Lana guessed that it wasn't the best time for her to tell Lucifia what she thought of her.

Slowly, she let her left arm wander behind her back.

"I think you better..." Lucifia began, but never finished it.

In the fraction of a second, Lana had grabbed the dagger, which had been placed in her jeans, and thrust it forward, aiming on Lucifia's right arm that she held the bowl with.

The fraction of a second later, Lana sailed backwards through the air, a scream of pain and anger filling her ears.

Feeling her whole back screaming in pain, Lana stared on the being standing before her.

Lucifia first stared unbelieving on her bleeding arm... if someone could call the black liquid coming out of the wound, blood?

She hadn't really hit the arm, as she had wanted to, even though it was enough for her to release her. Lana's instincts sharpened, as her mind registered that what she had done to Lucifia was little more than a scrap, despite the blood.

Lucifia seemingly came to the same conclusion, since she turned her head around to the gargess who had wounded her, her face showing blind rage.

"For this, you'll DIE" Lucifia screamed, tensing her muscles to leap on her misbehaving niece.

Lana held up her right arm to cover her face, even though she didn't believe she could do anything against her. All the energy she had just felt a second before, had left Lana.

Luckily, she had no need of it.

In the moment that Lucifia wanted to leap on her, some of the black blood ran from Lucifia's arm and onto the bowl that she had dropped seconds before, causing something to happen...

The bowl began to shine red while the drops of black blood practically filled it. Lana believed to see strange symbols beginning to shine on the bowl, but they were strange for her to understand.

Before she could take a closer look on them, a large column of red light emerged from the middle of the bowl and ended two meters above it, in something like a ball of red light, spinning around with tentacles.

Lana heard something that she could describe as a tearing...

The ball of massive red light caused Lana to hold her arm before her eyes. When she let her arm sink, she wished she hadn't.

They weren't alone anymore...

It was something that Lana couldn't describe. It was maybe a half meter large... seemingly like a mix of insect and reptile... No, that was just a metaphor, as nothing could be described as this.

The creature had a wet, slimy and partly scaled body... a single compound eye, like an insect, on what Lana believed to be it's forepart. The eye shone in yellow, blue and pink, which whirled around in its inner, slightly illuminating its surrounding and letting all that touched the light, seem... false.

In some way, it seemed to look around, as if it were disorientated, like it knew that it didn't belong there.

To even top it, the being rose the first third of its body, now standing on things that were at both sides of its body that Lana had believed to be hair, but seemed to serve as legs... hundreds of legs which seemed, despite they were just hair, rather strong.

At the under side, at what Lana believed served as it's head, she saw a circular mouth, filled with small, rotating fangs... a long, yellow tongue came out of it, seemingly tasting the air while rotating.

Lana would have stared on that thing for eternity, if she hadn't heard a sound behind her back.

Swinging her head around, fearing that maybe the brother of this thing was behind her back, she stared at a corner of the alley, discovering a rat running away like mad, for sure having sensed something too strange to not be dangerous.

Concentrating back on the strange creature, she noticed a tone that was constantly emitting from it, not even guessing what it was for.

Her eyes fell on Lucifia, who stared on the being, not half as surprised as Lana. To be honest, all Lana could see in her face was something she almost would call blessed happiness.

Lana's eyes wandered back down, but something in her mind forced her not to look on the creature, which had no right to be here, but instead on the still shining bowl, lying maybe a meter away from her.

For a moment, something in her mind told her to grab the bowl... but before she could tell this part that it was mad, something happened, which made her shake in fear.

Lucifia laughed. First calm, then louder and louder...

This was enough for Lana, as she crawled backwards, then turned around, unconsciously grabbing the scroll lying on the earth before her and ran on all fours in the direction of the corner. Reaching it and taking the direction to the street, she ran just on two legs, not caring that she would freak the people, as long as they were humans... or just someone from this dimension.

Lana looked over her shoulder, fearing Lucifia, or the being following her, but she saw no one but shadows and...

She stumbled into something low, loosing the few balance she had and fell... into someone's arms... into a gargoyle's arms.

No, she thought frantically

"Lana" Lucifia called her.

Lana shrieked and tried to break out of the female's arms, but the claws held her like iron.

She managed to free her left arm with the dagger still in it, raising it and thrusting the dagger down. She aimed anywhere, whether it was to the head, the throat... anywhere, as long as it got her free.

A strong claw grabbed the arm with the dagger, still in the air.

"LANA" a voice hissed.

Lana looked up, seeing through her own tearful eyes, into the eyes of her captor... green eyes, and a golden tiara that shone in the darkness.

"Gran..." this was all Lana could whisper before she felt all strength leaving her body.

If Demona hadn't reacted at once and held her granddaughter, Lana would have fallen onto the ground. Instead, she slowly half carried, half dragged her to a wall where she let her sit down, leaning on the wall.

"Lana, what are you doing here" Demona spoke to her granddaughter, kneeling in front of her, Shade left of her. "Where is..."

This was the moment when she took a closer look at the dagger in Lana's claw... the dagger, which was partly covered in black blood... and she realized at least partly what was going on.

"Guard her." Demona ordered the gargbeast beside her and rose, running in the direction of the corner before Lana could even fully awaken.

Turning her head around, Lana saw the end of a tail vanishing around the corner.

Lana wanted to stand up, yet her muscles felt too weak to even respond on the order of her brain, so she stayed, leaning at the wall.

Slowly, she realized that she still held the dagger; the blade partly covered in Lucifia's black blood, and threw it away so that it landed half a meter in front of her.

Shade looked at the dagger and then questioning on Lana before stepping closer to her and comforting her by cuddling up to her, never missing the corner where her friend had vanished to, out of her eyes.

Lana meanwhile shook slightly, listening to anything coming from around the corner and for a moment she believed to hear something, sounding like her grandmother's voice talking silently, the wind or just her own heart beating like mad.

But she forgot about this when she noticed the scroll that she still held in her right claw.

For one moment she looked at it, hundreds of thoughts rushing through her mind, then she threw it away to the dagger.

A second, or a minute, later her grandmother came back.

"She is gone." Demona explained, worriedly looking on her granddaughter.

Lana nodded, feeling to weak to feel relieved.

"What are you doing here" the immortal asked hard, while kneeling in front of her.

Damned good question, something in Lana noted.

Before she could say anything, her grandmother had discovered the scroll lying by the dagger and took it up.

Demona opened the scroll and read it, her face growing darker in every second.

Finally she looked up, her eyes dark as her face.

"She promised you a spell to make you human if you came." Demona concluded.

"No..." Lana whispered, trying to avoid her grandmother's green eyes. "I had to bring her something..."

"**YOU MADE A DEAL WITH HER!**" Demona snarled on her granddaughter with blood-red eyes, coming forward, which made Lana feel more than a little smaller, even when she guessed that even being Gem's size wouldn't help.

Shade jumped away from them, looking surprised on her master and wondering what was going on.

"Please..." Lana begged miserably, tears again threatening to emit from her eyes while she felt grinded stone, from where her grandmother's claw scraped the wall, fell on her right shoulder. "I just want to go home..."

Demona stared on her granddaughter for two seconds longer, her eyes glowing red, then she rose, taking a look to the corner of the alley where her dark daughter had been and her eyes became normal again.

"Let's go..." she told Lana, looking down on her "Darlene will be worried... and you can explain yourself later... to both of us."

Lana nodded, feeling dry in her throat while standing up.

Demona, meanwhile, knelt where the dagger and the scroll lay on the ground, taking up the second thing and staring at it, thinking before putting it into her belt.

Then she picked up the dagger and studied it before taking it to her belt.

She stopped half in the motion, again holding the dagger before her eyes and starring at the black blood on it.

Demona rose again, going to one of the trashcans and searching in it, much to Lana's wonder.

Finally, she pulled a somewhat white plastic bag out of the rubbish and put the dagger in it before fixing it on her belt and rising.

"Come." Demona told her granddaughter while she rose.

Lana nodded and seconds later, both gargoyles climbed up the wall, finding a position where they could launch into the sky from.

A being, which climbed unseen on a wall, followed them with its single insect eye, thinking unknown things and finally, half crawling and half wriggling, moved away.

**13.08.98; 00:34; Before Destine Mansion:**

Lana landed behind her grandmother, touching the ground with one hand-claw.

Maybe mum hasn't noticed yet? Lana thought, not being able to see the veranda doors through her grandmother's wings.

When the veranda doors were pushed open and a worried Darlene stormed out of it, passing her mother and Shade, Lana's hopes were destroyed.

"Lana" Darlene nearly screamed, running to her daughter and embracing her, then holding her in front of her so that she could study her.

"I found your windows broken open." she told her, hugging her again. "Did Lucifia do anything to you"

Lana stared into her mother's eyes, seeing definitely much relief, but before she could start to formulate an answer, Demona intervened.

"She can tell you everything inside." Demona noted, walking in with Shade following her.

When Lana risked a look, she discovered Angela sitting there with Gem on her lap who played with her aunt's tail. Beside her sat Jarred, holding one of his comics. The gargess, she knew as Desdemona, had risen from another couch... all stared worriedly on her through the open door.

"You informed the clan" Lana asked, her worry rising.

"Yes" Darlene explained while they were stepping in. "Half of the clan is still searching the city for you."

Great, Lana thought.

"I'll phone father so that he can call the clan back." Angela said, rising.

"Wait, there is time for that later." Demona calmed her down while she leaned on a wall.

Surprised, Angela first looked to her mother and then to Lana who was avoiding everyone's eyes.

"Where did you find her" Darlene asked her mother, noticing the way she looked on Lana, or better yet, the way she didn't.

"At the Bronx." Demona replied, without going further into detail.

Darlene stared back on her daughter, who still avoided her eyes.

"Why did she take you there" she asked her.

Lana looked to her grandmother, but she just stared ahead.

"Well..." she began"…Let's start with the window..."

"Jarred discovered it two hours ago." Darlene explained, leading her daughter to sit down on the couch beside her, which she followed reluctantly. "Even when I didn't want to believe it."

"Yeah..." Jarred began, happy that his sister was back and to be able to say something. "Lucifia said she wouldn't attack us here."

"She lied." Darlene told him, angry on herself that she had come to believe that for even a second.

"No…" Lana replied very silently. "She didn't kidnap me."

All eyes, except her grandmother's, were now directed on her.

"I went by myself." she whispered, somehow hoping that her mother overheard it.

The unbelieving face that her mother showed proved even this hope to be false.

Darlene could just stare on her daughter, who slowly lowered her head.

"What" she asked her daughter totally surprised. "Why"

Lana waited a second, looking to the floor.

"She promised to make me human again." she explained.

Darlene stared at her daughter, then she looked up to her mother, who was still leaning on the wall. Instead of calming down, she noticed the scroll on her mother's belt.

A magical scroll, she recognized.

Again she looked on her daughter, who wouldn't look at her, for a very good reason, as Darlene knew now.

"And you simply went with her, because she promised it" Darlene asked her unbelieving.

Lana shook her head, then raised it and looked somewhat miserably at her mother's face.

"I had to bring her something..." she began. "One of grandmother's artifacts."

"**WHAT!**" Darlene screamed while jumping up, her tail swing around.

Lana lowered her head again.

Before Darlene could say more, Demona stepped forth.

"Before this goes on." she told the crowd, looking first on her daughter and then on Lana. "Has Lucifia said anything about what she wants with the bowl"

Lana looked up into her grandmother's eyes, finding them as hard as they had been since she found out about what she had done.

"No..." she explained. "But when her blood fell in it... something happened, as if something opened and then there was some sort of alien."

"Alien" Demona asked surprised.

Lana bit her lip.

"It was like it was part worm and insect..." she tried to explain. "Something strange..."

Demona stared at her, or through her, her face expressing shock.

"Sister" Desdemona asked, standing.

Demona shook her head, her face becoming normal again.

"I'll be in my lab." she explained, going to the door to the stairs while clutching the dirty white plastic bag on her belt. "Maybe this can bring at least one good thing."

With this she vanished, followed by Shade.

Darlene stared for three seconds on her daughter, before she looked up to Angela.

"Can you take Jarred and Gem upstairs" she asked her little sister.

Angela nodded, taking Gem, who had started sucking her aunt's tail, into her arms.

"Come" she offered Jarred. "Why don't you show me the games on your PC"

Jarred wanted to protest, but a quick glance in his mother's eyes taught him better.

"Okay" he agreed defeated, rising and walking ahead to the stairs.

Angela took a last look on Darlene, but she just stared at Lana while Lana stared on the ground, so she silently followed Jarred.

"I guess I should look after my sister." Desdemona told them, without really believing to get a response.

Since this proved true, she walked to the stairs searching her sister's lab.

Mother and daughter were alone.

Lana stared on the ground.

"Lana, **look** at me" Darlene ordered her with a hard voice.

Slowly she did so, until her brown eyes discovered her mothers blue ones, showing deep disappointment.

"Have you just a clue what you have done" Darlene asked her daughter with folded arms. "Have you just an idea in what danger you have been"

Lana winced.

"Mom, please..." she begged. "Please understand, I just want to have my life back."

"And so you made a deal with Lucifia" Darlene demanded to know, throwing up her arms. "After all you know she did... who she is"

"I had to try it..." Lana defended herself. "After all, you and grandmother haven't done anything to make us human again."

"Your grandmother is working on a way to stop Lucifia." Darlene reminded her. "The world can't always revolve around you."

"You aren't fair." Lana told her angrily.

"Am I not" Darlene asked, crossing her arms again, her voice hard. "Why"

"I tried to get the bowl back." Her daughter told her. "I really did..."

"You shouldn't have been there in the first place." Darlene noted. "You should have come to me at once."

Lana looked away from her mother.

"People might die because of this." Darlene reminded her. "We all could be in danger for a spell, which is for sure a trap."

Lana bit her lip, feeling tears floating down her cheeks.

"I can't say how much you disappoint me." Darlene told her daughter with a sad voice, but while Lana looked up, it hardened. "Go up to your room and stay there."

Lana looked on her mother for a moment with tears in her eyes, before she ran in the direction of the stairs.

Darlene didn't look at her, but let herself fall on the couch, taking her legs close to her body, laying her head on her knees and staring ahead.

**13.08.98; 00:58; Destine Mansion. The secret level:**

Desdemona slowly walked through the floor of her sister's reign, feeling a bit strange when she passed torches, which showed no signs of warmth.

She headed to the heart of the secret lair, the room ahead which she finally knocked on.

"Come in." Demona's voice called from inside.

As the caramel skinned gargess did so, she discovered her sister sitting with her back to her, Shade at her feet-claws. Slowly, she walked closer to her sister until she could take a look over her shoulder, on the table she sat before.

On it, Demona scraped, with a knife, the last bit of black blood from the dagger, placing it into a test tube.

"You want to study it" Desdemona asked her sister, from behind her back.

Demona looked up, seemingly surprised to see her, then she nodded.

"There are too many things that I still don't know about" she noted, closing the tube with a cork.

Desdemona nodded silently.

"How is the old..." Demona began, stopping after a second, not looking up to her sister. "How is Hudson"

Desdemona looked down on her, tried to see her sister's eyes, but couldn't.

"Moore said he is stable" she explained. "And the elders who visited him said he would hold himself."

Demona nodded, saying nothing

"It wasn't your fault." Desdemona said. "With the Mentor's leg, I mean."

For a moment, she believed to see an expression in her sister's face that she couldn't really recognize,

"Whatever." Demona replied in a cold voice.

Before Desdemona could say anything, her sister had grabbed the tube.

"It feels cold" she noticed, more to herself than anyone else, making clear that she didn't want to go further with the topic.

Her sister nodded, even though her sister's eyes were concentrated on the black content of the tube. Slowly, she looked around in the room, which seemed to be a mixture of an alchemy laboratory and a wizard's lair… a sorceress' lair.

Desdemona walked over to a shelf, full of books with titles written mostly in Latin and languages she didn't know. On the shelf under it, she discovered several little jars made of glass with alchemic ingredients.

Taking a look over it, she took one up which was filled with dried blossoms and studied the label, interested.

"Leontopodium..." she whispered.

"Edelweiss." the voice of her sister told her from behind.

Desdemona nodded and laid the jar back to the others before turning around to look on her sister who looked on her in return, even when trying to avoid her eyes.

"A nice lab." she noticed. "As far as I can say."

"The best I had over the years, since Moray..." Demona explained. "But even then, I hadn't as much resources as today."

Desdemona waited a second, leaning on a table.

"And in Wyvern" she asked.

Demona didn't answer at once, turning half around on her chair before looking up.

"The Archmage let me use his lab while I was his apprentice." she explained, as matter of fact. "After this, under the Magus there was no way for me to do so."

Her sister tried a smile.

"I half expected you to have your own secret laboratory." she half joked

Demona didn't smile on this, indeed her face stayed as hard as before.

"Too risky..." she explained.

Desdemona's smile faded completely.

"You mean that a member of the clan would discover it" the orange skinned gargess noticed. "Like me"

"It was better so." Demona defended herself, looking away.

"You could have trusted me." her sister assured her, stepping forward in front of her. "We are sisters and sisters should trust each other."

"You can't trust someone who isn't on your side." Demona replied in a cold tone.

"You never gave me an opportunity to be on your side." Desdemona noticed dryly. "You never gave this to anyone of the clan."

The immortal wanted to reply on this, but then she stopped, waiting a second.

"Maybe not." she explained.

"And would you now" her sister asked. "Do you want to give me the opportunity to be on your side"

Demona looked up to her sister.


	9. Conclusion

**13.08.98; 01:41; Destine Mansion, living room:**

Darlene lay on the couch, looking up to the ceiling when a knock sounded.

Wondering, she rose while looking to the closed doors of the veranda, seeing a dark shadow standing behind the glass.

Jumping to her feet in less than a second with red burning eyes, she got the opportunity to correct her mistake by noticing that it was two shadows, shadows with the bulkier shapes of male gargoyles and not that of a female, which she had assumed.

Calming down, she walked to the doors, recognizing Goliath and his brother... Othello, as Darlene remembered.

She opened it with the try of a smile, which failed definitely.

"Darlene." Goliath greeted her. "Angela told us your daughter is back"

Darlene nodded, offering her guests to step in.

"Has she told you the rest of the story" she asked her guests, leading them to the couches.

"What story" Goliath asked surprised.

"My daughter seemingly wasn't kidnapped by Lucifia, but went with her..." Darlene explained.

"Why would she do this" Othello asked, surprised why somebody would do something so silly.

"Lucifia promised her a spell to make her human again." Darlene revealed. "In return, she gave her one of mother's artifacts."

She sighed.

"Lana told us she wanted to take the artifact back, but Lucifia had already gotten it." Darlene explained, shaking her head and looking down to the ground, so as not to look into their eyes. "Believe me, I'm so sorry for this... I will punish her accordingly."

Goliath crossed his arms.

"This doesn't sound good." his brother noted.

Goliath nodded, looking calmly to Darlene, much to her relief without accusation in his eyes.

"No" the clan leader agreed"but most important is that you have your daughter back."

Darlene looked up to Goliath, finally nodding.

She wanted to say more, but in this moment Darlene could hear steps coming from the door.

Some seconds later, Shade came in, studying the newly arrived and sniffing in the air, finding the situation not dangerous and so deciding to relax.

When the gargbeast sat down, Demona and Desdemona entered. While the immortal walked to her daughter, looking to Goliath, Desdemona went to her mate, embracing him shortly.

"No successful hunt this time" she asked.

Othello shook his head, seeing something in his mate's eyes that he couldn't identify, as if she was thinking on something other, in any case she didn't seem as happy as she pretended to.

"Next time, maybe" he explained, returning the embrace. "But at least the clan got something to do."

Desdemona nodded, taking a look on Demona.

"The bowl Lucifia has now" Goliath began, addressing his ex-mate. "Is this like the one that your..." he hesitated shortly"…mate used"

Demona shook her head, not noticing Goliath's hesitation in naming Shaman, or not wanting to go into it.

"No" she explained. "Shaman's bowl made it easier for us to call spirits... It had some sort of energy, but I haven't noticed such by this one."

"Lana said Lucifia accidentally summoned some sort of creature, when a bit of her blood hit the bowl." Darlene went in.

"Creature" Goliath asked calmly, images of the creatures he had fought with in his life rushing through his inner eye...

"She couldn't really describe it..." Darlene explained. "But was around half a meter large and had just one eye. Like a mixture of snake and insect."

"Summoned" Goliath asked further. "Like through a gate"

Darlene nodded.

"What do you know about its history" Othello asked his renegade rookery sister.

"The human I bought it from said it was Indian and very old." Demona explained, leaning on a couch. "They didn't want to say anymore."

"Why" Desdemona asked surprised.

"They didn't want to name their sources" her sister explained. "They feared someone would call the police."

"But, mom, why should a merchant..." Darlene began, before realizing. "Oh..."

Goliath realized it even so and with a slight grumble, while the rest just stared on the immortal.

"You hired some thieves to steal it" he noticed, somehow not really surprised.

Demona shrugged her shoulders.

"I bought it _from_ some thieves." she corrected him. "And before you start a moral lecture about it, Goliath, I have to inform you that when Xanatos began transporting the castle to here, there were many humans who complained that it would be some sort of cultural stealing."

The immortal gave them a dark grin.

"And you know where you would be if the city had listened to them" she asked him.

"And we remember through whom." Othello remembered her.

This turned the grin of Demona's face into a demonstration of her fangs, as it made her eyes show a glimmer of red.

Darlene thought it a good idea to take a step in front of her mother.

On the other side, Desdemona laid a claw on her mate's shoulder, trying to calm him down, while he still looked threatening on his renegade sister.

"Enough" Goliath ordered while stepping between both parties, first looking to Demona, then to his brother. "We aren't here for fighting."

Both seemingly calmed down, so Goliath looked back to Demona.

"Could you try to find out something about the bowl" he asked her.

Demona stepped a bit away from her daughter.

"I'll see to it." she told them, never taking her eyes from Othello.

Goliath nodded.

"It is better we go now." he explained to them. "The rest of the clan needs to learn about this."

Darlene nodded, guessing that this was not the only good reason for a fast departure.

"I'll go up and inform Angela." Darlene offered the clan leader after a fast look on her mother's face, which was icy once again.

Goliath agreed with a nod and a second later Darlene walked in the direction of the door, thinking that the night hadn't ended yet for someone.

She stopped, already standing in the doorway and turned around.

"Goliath, I have a request…" she began.

**13.08.98; 02:19; Destine Mansion, Lana's room:**

Lana sat on her bed and stared on the ceiling, much as she had hours ago. It was just that she wasn't listening to music now, but that didn't quell how bad she felt, which was much worse and was in more trouble than she had been able to imagine.

After a time, she couldn't guess, the door began to open slowly, revealing her mother entering who closed it behind her back.

Darlene looked hard at her daughter, who rose from her bed.

"Your aunts have just left with Goliath and his brother." she explained to Lana. "Goliath has luckily taken the news about what you have done, very calmly and maybe he can convince the clan not to see it as betrayal."

"I don't give anything on what the clan thinks about me" Lana explained hotly to her mother.

"I noticed so." Darlene told her daughter, now standing in front of her, her arms crossed and trying not to let the anger that she felt, since the disappointment had faded, rule. "To change this, you will now come with me every time I visit the clan with Jarred. Maybe coming closer with this part of our family will…"

"Those guys are NOT my family" Lana pointed out angrily.

"They are." Darlene explained. "And they welcomed us greatly, which you would have seen if you had wanted to."

"WE are a family, mother." her daughter insisted. "You, me, Jarred and Gem… like back in LA. It was enough."

"But it isn't so anymore." Darlene reminded her. "And it is time that you face it."

Lana looked away out of the window that she still was not able to close.

"And I have to face that I can't protect you completely anymore." her mother explained. "So you need to learn to protect yourself."

Lana groaned.

"Training by grandma" she asked, remembering the talk between her mother and Demona that she had overheard once.

"Training by the clan." her mother, replied with a hard voice. "I already talked with Goliath about it and he agreed to take care of it. There is someone who will teach you all you need to know about how to defend yourself."

This made Lana jump up from the bed.

"What" she asked, slightly shocked, just to continue angrily. "Mom, I've no interest in playing knight"

"Oh, you definitely won't be _playing_ it, Lana." Darlene told her daughter, remembering her own fighting lessons with her mother. "Learning to be a warrior is a serious matter, as you'll see soon."

Lana didn't look on her mother, but on the floor, angrily clenching her fists by the thought of what she would have to do soon.

"TV, music and the PC are banished and I will talk with your grandma about enlarging your chores." Darlene explained, still staring at her eldest daughter. "Maybe this will give you time to think about what you've done."

"I KNOW what I've done." Lana shouted angrily, her eyes turning red. "What you don't want to do."

"Don't you think I want to be back home in Los Angeles if I could" Darlene asked her.

"No I don't." Lana replied, her eyes slowly becoming normal again, her face showing frustration. "I think you would stay here by grandma and the clan if you had the choice."

Darlene opened her mouth to deny this, but then closed it, waiting a second.

"On any case, I wouldn't make a deal with the devil for it." she finally noted. "Or do you really think Lucifia has given you a spell to make you human again"

Darlene looked one moment longer in her daughter's eyes before she walked to the door, waiting since she had forgotten something.

"Mother has ordered a workman to repair the window. So you have to go to my room before sunrise." she explained, adding after a break "And if you see Lucifia again, or just believe to see her, you will come to me or your grandmother at once, clear"

Lana nodded, even when her eyes stayed defiant, so Darlene went out, closing the door behind her back.

**13.08.98; 02:51; Destine Mansion, Secret level:**

Demona sat on her chair, reading a book about various manifestations of ghost beings and their possession of livings when she heard the steps of feet claws coming from the door.

She didn't really have to look up from the chapter about fire-elementals to know who came.

"You spoke with Lana" the immortal noticed, closing the book and lying it on the table while turning around to her daughter.

Darlene nodded.

"I hope she'll learn her lesson." she explained, not 100 sure, adding while studying the bookshelf. "Found something"

"There are various descriptions about possessions through different ghosts and demons, and examples for how it can be fought… sometimes." she told her biologically eldest daughter. "I'll test some of the described methods with the blood we have."

Darlene's look stayed on the book.

"Do you think you could heal Lucifia" she asked her mother.

Demona stayed silent a moment, then she looked up to Darlene.

"I don't know." she stated in an unmoved tone. "By what Shaman told me or what I saw, no… but maybe there are ways to weaken her."

Darlene understood, even when she had a mixed feeling by this. On one side, she didn't want to loose a sister… but otherwise she didn't want to let Lucifia harm some of her family… or someone else for that matter.

Just when she thought about it, Darlene noticed the scroll lying on the table.

"Is this Lucifia's scroll" she asked, taking it up.

Demona nodded.

"And what is it" Darlene asked further.

Her mother waited a second, while Darlene rolled up the scroll and looked over it.

"Maybe what Lucifia said it is." Demona replied in a reluctant voice.

This made Darlene look surprised in her mother's face, but these stayed hard.

"What" she asked unbelieving.

"I said maybe." Demona replied in a slightly irritated tone, shaking her head "You can't be 100 sure by these sort of spells."

Darlene's eyes stayed on her mother's face before they turned back to the scroll.

"I could destroy it." Demona offered her daughter after she had studied the scroll for some seconds, as she hoped to decipher the scroll's meaning.

Darlene thought about it and then shook her head, closing the scroll.

"Could you keep it in the safe" she asked her mother, offering her the scroll.

Demona hesitated and Darlene could see in her mother's face how much trouble she had to not destroy such a scroll at once.

You never really searched for a way to make us human again, did you? Darlene asked her mother mentally, before realizing but I couldn't expect such from you.

Finally, Demona took the scroll and laid it back on the table.

"Later." she promised icily.

Darlene nodded, when an idea crossed her mind.

"Mom, could you give Lana some lessons in magic" she asked her.

Demona laughed a little.

"What became of 'respecting her free will'." the immortal asked sarcastically.

"I forbade her such for the time being." Darlene noted dryly, by the mention of her own words. "Mom, she needs knowledge if Lucifia goes after her again… or anyone else."

Demona nodded seriously, having heard the fear in her daughter's voice.

"I will train her with Jarred." she explained. "Since she is behind in this, I would favor to give her private lessons, but I don't have the time."

Darlene understood, looking back on the table with the book.

"Mom" she began"can I help somehow"

Demona looked stunned on her daughter, surprised by this offer.

"What about Gem" she asked simply.

"She's up with Jarred and Shade." Darlene explained. "Please, mom. I want to do more than to sit around and wait on what my sister does next."

The immortal waited a second, until she nodded, giving her daughter a slight smile.

"Get a chair from the storeroom and bring the Bunsen burner." she told her. "It is time to analyze this blood."

Darlene nodded, smiling to herself while turning around. In moments like this, she knew why she loved her mother so.

**13.08.98; 07:31; Destine Mansion, Darlene's room:**

Darlene looked down on Gem, who was lying in her crib sleeping. She gave her daughter a worried smile while watching over her.

Then she sighed and silently sat on her bed, waiting.

She hadn't to do so for long, since two minutes later the door opened and her other daughter entered.

Lana entered with an angry look on her face, which said to all about how she felt.

"Come sit with me." Darlene offered her in a mild tone. "We have to talk."

"Oh, really" her daughter asked.

Her tone was pure sarcasm, yet Lana closed the door behind her and sat on the bed, even though reluctantly and as far away from her mother as possible. Not that Darlene was surprised, as when she had come in Lana's room, after some experiments with her mother, the temperature had been below zero, just to fall to the temperature of Pluto when she explained to her daughter that she now had to take lessons in magic with her grandmother too.

"Lana, I thought about what you said." Darlene explained seriously. "And I have to say you that you were right."

"What" Lana asked, more than a bit surprised.

"At least about two points." her mother qualified.

"Which ones" Lana asked skeptically.

"First, your grandmother hasn't searched for a way to make us human again…" she began.

"See" Lana stopped her angrily. "I told you she would never…"

"But" Darlene interrupted her even so, but in a calmer voice, so as not to wake up Gem. "She helped us when nobody else did and so you won't tell her this."

Lana thought about it a second, then she nodded. She definitely didn't want to argue with her grandmother… ever.

"Then you said that I wouldn't want to go back to L.A." Darlene explained. "That was right too."

Lana just stared at her mother, not knowing what to say.

"I thought about my life here and the one in L.A., and… it just isn't comparable." Darlene told her. "Most of all, it is the clan, my new siblings, mother… Lana, look at me" she stood up with a smile on her face. " I'm a gargoyle"

"**BUT I AM NOT!**" Lana shouted angrily, while standing up"I have no fun in gliding through the night, or being seen as a monster by the rest of the world."

High crying showed that Gem had definitely been awaken by this and Darlene instantly went to the crib to take up her youngest daughter, but not without giving her eldest daughter a hard look.

"I haven't said you would." Darlene told Lana with a calm, but even so strong voice, while rocking Gem. "But you have to see that I have no reason to return to L.A…. not without your father."

"I don't want stay here…" Lana stated, sounding very defiant"and not so…"

Darlene nodded, then looked to Gem in her arms who looked up at her.

"I won't force you to do so." she explained, looking back to Lana. "I will give you, as well as Gem and Jarred, the opportunity to choose which life you want when you are old enough."

"How old" Lana asked, feeling hope rising in her chest.

"I will give you the opportunity to decide in two years." Darlene said.

"Two years" her daughter asked unbelieving. "I'll be 18 in two months"

"I know." Darlene replied, finding it not necessary to say that it would still be 10 months since gargoyles aged slower. "But this is what I have decided."

Lana turned around, her face away from her mother.

"Lana." Darlene called her, placing Gem on her bed and placing her right claw on her daughter's right shoulder. "Please, I know this sounds long to you."

Slowly, she turned her around, making her look straight into her eyes.

"But for me, this means just two more years with all my children, living with me." she explained. "Please, can you live here for now… with me"

Lana looked into her mother's eyes, thinking about it, before she finally nodded.

"I'll try." she promised weakly, not really thrilled by the look on two more years of living this way.

Darlene gave her daughter a warm smile and hugged her.

"Thank you, darling." she told Lana while stroking her hair. "You'll see, it'll get better."

Lana wasn't really convinced by this and wanted to say something when she heard a chirping from the heel of her feet claw.

Gem had been bored on the bed and so had climbed down, now standing by the side of her mother and sister, leaning on her mother's leg and staring up at them.

Darlene took her youngest daughter up in her arms.

"And what do you say on this" she asked her smiling.

Gem's reaction was a happy laughter. This even brought a slight smile on Lana's face, which froze when the first beams of sunlight fell through the window.

Seconds later, after ever motion and silenced screams of pain had stopped, the door to the room opened and a red haired woman eyed the three statues with an unreadable face and cold green eyes.

**To be continued… **


End file.
